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The article explores the history of the Flemish panel stamp and its use in bookbinding decoration. Topics discussed include the popular use of octavo format printing, research by scholar Staffan Fogelmark on the molding of stamps, wooden book covers, and composite panels separated by a decorative frieze.

Book history has increasingly developed a cohesive view of the printing, selling, owning, reading and use of books, but bookbinding continues to struggle to find its place in the teaching and perception of the disciple. This is counter-intuitive, and a missed opportunity, in a world in which we talk so much about the book as a material object. This paper examines the reasons, and challenges many of the assumptions or beliefs that remain endemic in binding history. It offers examples of ways in which a different approach to binding studies is needed, while considering debates about the relative usefulness of methodologies based around decoration, or structure. It sets out a philosophy, or methodology, for the study of bindings in a book-historical context, with some basic questions which we should bring to any binding before us. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the copy-specific features of French printer Philippe Pigouchet's 18th century book of hours, owned by monk and book collector Joannes Petrus Reyns. Topics discussed include Pigouchet's printing of the book on vellum on August 8, 1947, inscription in the manuscript which offered evidence for Reyns' ownership, and the characteristics of the book's binding.

From 1963 to 1996 Sister Lucie M. Gimbrère restored 446 books in the Onze Lieve Vrouwe abbey in Oosterhout, for various clients. Most of these books were very valuable manuscripts, incunabula and post-incunabula. Indeed, some of the absolute gems among the books in Dutch collections passed through her hands. Sister Lucie always adhered to the same principles: following the French binding tradition and working in the footsteps of the medieval bookbinder. She was guided by the book itself, academic literature and her commissioners, and not significantly by the code of ethics for restorers. Furthermore, she kept well away from chemical experiments and modern techniques. Precisely this approach made her business a success. Because of her concern for history, the attention she gave to the smallest archaeological leads and her practice of careful documentation, Sister Lucie emerged as an important pioneer in the history of medieval book restoration in the Netherlands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the verification of anthropodermic bibliopegy, the secret practice and process of binding books in human skin in the 20th century, and its implications. Topics mentioned include the method of preservation that has an effect on skin deterioration, visual inspection of a book, and DNA testing.

The article discusses the history of an early red-printed correction sheet in the Huntington Library copy of "Vulgaria uiri doctissimi Guil. Hormani Caesarisburgensis." The text is marked for three errors and corrected in the margin. The type in the correction sheet is indistinguishable from the 110G used by notary from 1498-1503 with few anomalies.

The traditional book manifests itself in a physical form which is subject to the circumstances of its creation and its subsequent history. The bookbinder is part of that history, occupying the place between the creation of the physical text and its consumption by its readers, whether they are members of the elite or at the lowest end of the economic spectrum. The work of the binder will therefore reflect both the economic and cultural circumstances of the creation of all books and when and where they were made, through variations in the techniques and materials used to make each binding. A close analysis of bindings will therefore cast light on the history of each book and the history of the book and the booktrade in general. The use of sewn bookblocks without cover or boards as a means of presenting books for sale and of limp covers in paper as early as the second decade of the sixteenth century both reveal the economic workings of the booktrade and how people bought their books. The presence on a single binding of the evidence of different cultural influences and national practices can reveal the cosmopolitan nature of the booktrade, just as details of the way in which a book was bound can reveal how individual owners regarded their books. They are essential components of the history of the book, and should be preserved so that they can play their part in the revealing the archaeology of the book. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the literary status of early English playbooks and the Stab-Stitching method that was used to bind these books together. Topics include the stab-stitching format of stationer Nathaniel Butter's publication of the play "The London Prodigal", reasons why very few copies of early stab- stitched playbook survive in original condition, and bibliographical discussions on these early English playbooks.

Small silver bookbindings from the Dutch Republic's province of Holland, dating from the first quarter of the seventeenth century are extremely rare. The main characteristics of such bindings are that they all have a relatively small size and appear to be unmarked; their decoration seems to be inspired by the ornament prints produced and distributed by Theodor de Bry and his son Johann Theodor de Bry. Often they contain a religious substance matter. Therefore, it is remarkable that such a binding was found in Switzerland in 2011, which appeared to contain its original content: an edition of the so-called Biestkens Bible, printed by Zacharias Cornelisz in Hoom in 1623. This binding's elaborate embellishment of scrollwork, floral and animal motifs such as monkeys, butterflies, birds, dogs and snails, was undoubtedly inspired by the ornamental print designs produced by father and son De Bry; the source of inspiration becomes even more clear in the present binding, when compared to other known contemporary examples in silver. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article characterizes the art of book binding in the medieval period based on the pictures of saints holding books that survived the period.

The article discusses color printing in Western Europe from circa 1490 through 1700, including printers' use of red frisket sheets as printing equipment. An overview of the binding agents used in color printing, including in regard to the binding of manuscripts and bookbinding structures, is provided.

Germain Colladon (1508-94), a refugee from France and a prominent lawyer in Geneva, was the owner of a rare copy of the Ioannis Calvini in viginti prima Ezechielis prophetae capita praelectiones (1565), Jean Calvin's last commentary, which discusses the first twenty chapters of the prophet Ezekiel. Colladon may have met Calvin, the leading reformer of Geneva, already during their years as students at the faculty of law in Orleans and Bourges. Germain, his older brother Leon, and the latter's son Nicolas frequented the public Bible studies of the Company of Pastors on Friday mornings, as is testified by a fist of witnesses for the prosecution in the case against the physician Jérome Bolsec. Germain is also featured at the beginning of the heresy trial against Michel Servet, which invites an inquiry into a rare copy of Servet's Christianismi restitutio, once owned by a member of the Colladon family. Court cases from the Genevan archives show Germain Colladon as a strict, even severe, lawyer who stuck to the penal code of his time. A number of medieval manuscripts, the provenance of which can be traced to Colladon's library, testify to a rich collection, in which the preciously bound copy of Calvin's last publication was no exception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Band 1 E 22 is a copy of Calvin's In viginti prima Ezechielis Prophetae capita Praelectiones (1565) and belonged to the French lawyer and resident of Geneva, Germain Colladon. The manuscript leaves used for this binding are early medieval and unusual in being very carefully positioned on the binding. Nicholas Pickwoad's account of the binding reconstructs and explains how the binder used the medieval manuscript leaves to display them on an otherwise very conventional French-style binding and highlights its significance in the history of bookbinding. Rosamond McKitterick identifies the text of both leaves as part of an Epistle Lectionary, or possibly a full Mass Lectionary, and demonstrates how the script, decoration, and mise-en-page enable these leaves to be recognized as the work of the scribes and artists working for Charles the Bald, grandson of Charlemagne, king of the Franks (840-77) and Emperor (875-77). It can be dated c.860. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between c.1845 and 1900 the firm of Alfred Marne in Tours produced enormous amounts of books for youngsters in paper case bindings covered with embossed coloured paper, which often had a lithograph pasted on the upper board. Extant copies of the same edition show different combinations of paper and lithographs. They prove that Mame had his books bound in batches, meant for various kinds of clients. Moreover, a few publisher's advertisements relate to different dates of binding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last century 'Elzeviriomania', the craze to collect the works of the seventeenth-century Dutch publishing house Elzevier, has finally abated. One of the few institutions that still actively collect and study Elzevier publications is the 'Elsevier Heritage Collection' in Amsterdam. This library of some 2,000 Elzeviers and related publications was brought together after the Second WorldWar by modern Elsevier. Recently the collection has been made accessible by an electronic catalogue and scholars and students are encouraged to do research on the books. The article describes the history and some noteworthy features of the collection, particularly with regard to physical aspects, such as provenances, marginalia and bindings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the discovery of a book believed to be bound by cleric and bookbinder Johannes Richenbach, and compares the binding to Richenbach's other works. The book, an incunable, is a copy of the "Biblia Latina" printed by Anton Koberger and held at the Huntington Library. Details related to the design and construction of the binding, including the use of pigskin leather and Richenbach's process of decorative stamping, are presented. Bookbinding in Ulm, Germany is also discussed.

The article offers information on the "Books within Books -- New discoveries in Old Bookbindings" conference that was organized by the European Association for Jewish Studies and was held in Oxford, England from July 18-20, 2011. Topics discussed at the conference included documents detailing the economic activities of Jewish people from the 1400s to the 1600s, the fragments of ancient Hebrew manuscripts found in Switzerland, and the deathbed requests made by Jewish people in the 15th century.

This contribution demonstrates the methodological impact of the studies in book history by Jos Hermans, reflecting the book market in the Hanseatic city of Greifswald in the late medieval period. Referring to the contemporary libraries in the communities of the black and grey friars and in the parish church of St Mary's, surviving codices, archival sources, book binding and provenance history are evaluated. The intention of this study is to exemplify the characteristics of the book trade and library organisation during the incunabula period in a town totally dependent on book import in the absence of printing shops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Radboud University Library in Nijmegen is a partner of the Einbanddatenbank (EBDB) in the Berlin Staatsbibliothek - Preussischer Kulturbesitz. Nijmegen records are being entered into this database of decorative tools of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century bookbindings. On the basis of a Nijmegen bookbinding it is shown how to search the EBDB for decorative tools and eventually to identify bookbinders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cet article examine les pages de garde contenues dans des reliures cartonnées et brochées de cinq textes du dix-huitième siècle français. Ces spécimens démontrent qu'il y des livres qui se doivent d'être conservés intacts comme artéfacts, étant donné que leurs feuillets jaunis par le temps peuvent fournir des indices sur le lieu et l'époque où ils ont été reliés, produits et diffusés, voire même donner un aperçu sur l'exercice de la censure. Il en va de même pour le travail de reliure le plus routinier pratiqué sur des ouvrages anciens, lequel peut faciliter notre compréhension des opérations commerciales jadis en vigueur. Le premier spécimen à l'étude est l'Histoire critique de la philosophie de Deslandes publiée par Jean Nourse à Londres en 1742. La typographie indique toutefois que l'ouvrage fut imprimé en Hollande. Même si ce livre fut frappé d'interdiction par le gouvernement français, les pages de garde donnent à penser qu'il fut relié en France. Le deuxième exemple est un pamphlet politique clandestin intitulé Influence du despotisme de l'Angleterre [1781] imprimé probablement à Neuchâtel et Besançon. La page de garde placée à la fin du livre est une page de titre de l'édition de 1779 ou 1780 de La Boussole imprimée par le même imprimeur de Besançon, ce qui suppose que la reliure fut fabriquée à cet endroit. Le troisième ouvrage est une traduction du Tableau de l'Angleterre et de l'Italie par Archenholtz et publiée à Strasbourg en 1788. Si l'on se fie à des événements survenus en septembre 1793 et rapportés par des journaux français de l'époque, la datation des pages de garde coïncide avec une période trouble de l'histoire politique et économique du pays, ce qui explique en partie la mauvaise qualité de la reliure. Le quatrième texte est l'Analyse des ouvrages de J.J. Rousseau publiée par la Veuve Duchesne à Paris en 1785. Comme l'ouvrage comporte un feuillet tiré d'un roman raté d'un dénommé Monvel publié par Duchesne une décennie plus tôt, on peut présumer que la reliure fut réalisée à Paris. Enfin le cinquième spécimen et non le moins intéressant est un pamphlet royaliste daté de 1789. La page de garde se trouvant à la fin du livre consiste en un feuillet tiré de la première édition in-octavo des Mémoires de Saint-Simon publiés par Buisson en octobre 1788. Si l'on compare cet exemple avec une édition in-douze de Buisson (1788), il appert que le censeur fit plus de coupures dans l'in-octavo que dans le format plus petit. La reliure fut sans doute réalisée à Paris au début de l'année 1789. Les feuillets supprimés auraient été probablement vendus à un cartonnier comme c'était l'usage à l'époque mais, dans ce cas-ci, ils furent utilisés par un relieur de manière que le texte censuré soit aisément lisible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on three traditions of bookbinding that flourished in Chicago hut are equally tied to the history of the craft in Iowa. These are exemplified by Ellen Gates Starr who founded a small bindery at Hull House and worked in the tradition of the Arts and Crafts Movement, the Hertzberg Bindery that created fine bindings for a select clientele, and Bill Anthony who established a binding and book conservation practice and who in his role as a mentor and teacher influenced a generation of binders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author requests the owners of variant editions of the "Alice" books by English author Lewis Carroll and bound by D. Appleton and Co. to identify themselves to him. He mentions the original sheets had been cancelled due to unsatisfactory reproduction of the illustrations, but that the printed sheets were sold and bound in New York City.